Strong quake rocks Mexico's Pacific coast

Friday

May 9, 2014 at 12:01 AMMay 9, 2014 at 11:27 AM

ACAPULCO, Mexico - A strong earthquake shook the southern Pacific coast of Mexico as well as the capital and several inland states yesterday, sending frightened people into unseasonal torrential rains that were also bearing down on the coast.

ACAPULCO, Mexico — A strong earthquake shook the southern Pacific coast of Mexico as well as the capital and several inland states yesterday, sending frightened people into unseasonal torrential rains that were also bearing down on the coast.

The magnitude 6.4 quake in southern Guerrero state was centered about 9 miles north of Tecpan de Galeana, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and was felt about 170 miles away in Mexico City, where office workers streamed into the streets away from high-rise buildings.

There were no reports of injuries. A 30-yard section of elevated road collapsed in Tecpan, near the epicenter, closing the federal highway between the resort cities of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo. The road had been damaged in a magnitude 7.2 quake that hit on April 18 in roughly the same area and was under repair when it collapsed. Heavy rain left the detour road underwater yesterday.

Tecpan shook ferociously, causing a “wave of panic” and some roofs to cave in, Mayor Crisoforo Otero Heredia said. As the day went on, civil-protection workers started hearing of collapsed houses, some in remote areas in the municipality of Tecpan.

A wall collapsed in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state, but civil-protection crews in Acapulco found no problems except scared residents who were forced to take refuge in the heavy rain that was hitting the region.

In Mexico City, elegantly dressed businesswoman Carmen Lopez was leaving a downtown office building when the ground began to shake. She dashed across the street to a leafy median as light poles swayed violently above her.

“That was just too scary,” Lopez said as she quickly started dialing her cellphone to alert friends and family.

Mexico City is vulnerable to distant earthquakes because much of it sits atop the muddy sediments of drained lake beds. They jiggle like jelly when the quake waves hit.

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